


At What Cost?

by StaplerQueen (Bananaise_San)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Dean Winchester (mentioned) - Freeform, Drabble, Emotional Whump, Gen, Grief, Human Jack Kline, Hurt/Comfort, Lucifer (mentioned) - Freeform, Motion Sickness, Nick (mentioned), Vomiting, because along with everything else that's wrong being a human sucks, mild physical whump, set between season 13 and 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 01:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19263322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananaise_San/pseuds/StaplerQueen
Summary: Lucifer, the Winchester's greatest foe was finally dead. But the price was immense.Dean was gone.Michael's on the loose riding his body.And young Jack is now fully human, with all that entails.Set between Seasons 13&14 Shortly after the finale.





	At What Cost?

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random ficlet I wrote dealing with the angst and aftermath of season 13.

Sam took Jack to the ER for stitches after what happened at the church.

 

He'd said they'd been jumped and that Jack had fallen onto a pointed old wrought iron fence to explain the strange shape of the angel blade. He'd been far too tender in his newly human body for the usual Winchester roadside repairs.

 

Cas had healed the wounds on his face and torso completely the next day when he and Mary made it to the town Sam and Jack had been stranded in. Jack had been dead quiet ever since Dean had disappeared. Knees pulled up to his chest, shoulders hunched, puppy dog eyes filled with woebegone worry just listening through the panicked phone calls and frantic conversations of the "adults."

 

For the drive back to the bunker Jack road with Sam in the Impala. Cas and Mary rode with Lucifer's still unconscious vessel sprawled out in the backseat of the second car. Both for her protection and to keep him far away from Jack. The elephant in the blue compact.

 

The majority of the first five hours were spent sitting in silence, Jack in his accustomed seat in the back. Sam had been too lost in his own thoughts to say anything about it. Jack didn't feel right about sitting in the front, that was Sam and Dean's space to him, and he blamed himself for it being half empty.

 

Jack sat staring out the window, stiff in his seat. Even without his spinning thoughts and the sinking anxiety of the last 24 hours the brightly painted vehicles and advertisements were still overstimulating after months in the Apocalypse world. His head began to swim.

 

Soon he felt aware of every pothole and slight correction of the big muscle car, the squish of each passing car like a punch in the gut. He regretted what he'd forced himself to eat of the greasy fast food they'd picked up that afternoon. He couldn't even remember what they'd ordered. 

 

His stomach was bouncing like tennis shoes in a tumble dryer, every inch of his body coated in a fine mist of sweat.

 

"Sam…" he said, voice nearly inaudible through barely parted lips, hugging his abdomen.

 

"Something's wrong."

 

Sam stiffened, like all the tension in the car had caused an electric shock, traveling up his body and out the top of his head.

 

"Shit, what happened are you…?"

 

Sam looked back at him in the mirror and seemed to recognize something in his face because his eyes widened. He quickly pulled the car to the side of the road and got out.

 

Saliva was pooling in the back of Jack’s mouth with an awful sweet tang and his eyes were filling with confused tears by the time Sam got around to his side of the car and opened the door.

 

He unbuckled Jack's seat belt and had him turn sideways in his seat, instructing the boy gently to lower his head between his knees.

 

It wasn't enough and soon Jack found his lunch lurching up his throat and onto the ground, some managing to splash on his shoes and the side of the car.

 

Sam winced a little and rubbed Jack's back as he heaved, ironically glad Dean wasn't around at that moment. He was worried and a little confused for a minute, this had never happened on one of their longer trips with Jack before. Then Sam nearly hit himself as the fundamental loss and change dawned on him,  Jack was human now.

 

Jack gasped and spat when it was over sobbing softly and brokenly because this on top of everything was too much.

 

Sam almost let himself say, "hey it's okay everything is alright…" but the words felt hollow in his chest, he knew the tears went far beyond simple carsickness. Dean was gone, Michael was on the loose, and Jack had had something that was deeply vitally a part of him ripped out by his own father.

 

Instead he just carefully explained what had happened and told Jack the nausea would pass. After having him to put his head back between his knees and breathe deeply Sam grabbed two plastic bags and a water bottle out of the trunk. He used part of the bottle to rinse off the side of the car and handed the rest of it to the sniffling boy. He told him to sip the water slowly to help calm his stomach, then carefully helped Jack place his dirty shoes in one of the plastic bags before handing him the other and giving him space.

 

Jack just sat in his socks, tears he couldn't be bothered to wipe away still trailing down his cheeks. The angry roar of his stomach quickly dulled down to a shaky mew as he sipped the water and kept his head down. His thoughts inversely grew louder to an unintelligible scream of white noise. He crinkled the water bottle absentmindedly in his hands, feeling numb.

 

He heard Sam call Cas and Mary in the lead car letting them know they'd stopped and we're going to grab something called "Dramamine" before heading back out on the road.

 

Then Sam was putting a hand on Jack's back and telling him gently he should come to sit beside him in the front and try not to look out of the window because it would be easier on him. Jack nodded quietly and did as he was told, stepping gingerly through the gravel over the puddle of vomit to sit in the front seat. Water bottle in one hand, empty plastic bag in the other.

 

His sniffling had withered away to nothing by the time Sam climbed in the driver side and it seemed like the previous silence would resume as Sam restarted the car.

 

After driving for ten minutes they pulled in at a nearby gas station and Sam sat with the engine running clearly mulling something over.

 

He finally found his voice looking over at Jack, sad but firm.

 

"We'll figure this out okay? We always do…"

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thinking on the aftermath of season 13. Lucifer's death, Dean's possession, Jack losing his grace and becoming human. I wanted to write something about the immediate aftermath. I got an idea and decided to roll with it.
> 
> I just wanted to write something quick and relatively fast-paced in more action less detail style, because long detailed fics are great but exhausting. I needed a break while working on the much longer sickfic "Movie Night (press F for Jack)" which has the last 2 chapters completely drafted now and should be finished very soon.


End file.
